Colonial to expand northeast U.S. pipeline flow

RoseMarton-Vitale

SAN DIEGO (MarketWatch) -- Colonial Pipeline Co. on Monday announced plans to increase refined products shipment to the U.S. Northeast, the region hit by supply shortfalls due to refinery closures, by an additional 125,000 barrels a day by 2014.

The expansion is slated on Line 3, a mixed-products pipeline between Greensboro, N.C., and Linden, N.J., and will be carried out in two phases, the company said in a press briefing here Monday at the annual meeting of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, formerly known as the NPRA.

Phase one will add 60,000 barrels a day: 20,000 by mid-2012 and 40,000 by mid-2013. Phase two will increase shipments by 65,000 barrels a day in 2014.

Colonial has completed several capacity enhancement projects, and some previously announced projects are under way. Those were initiated in 2009, well ahead of the Northeast refinery closures.

A 100,000-barrel-a-day Line 3 capacity increase was completed in fall 2011, and the construction of a new 218,000-barrel storage tank in Linden was completed in January.

Line 1, the gasoline mainline between Houston and Greensboro, will increase capacity by 100,000 barrels in early 2013; Line 2, the Houston-Greensboro distillate mainline, gained 20,000 barrels of capacity in mid-2011 and will add 55,000 barrels in mid-2012.

Recent refinery closings in the Northeast have contributed to allocating space on Colonial mainlines, primarily between Houston and Greensboro. The announced and the completed expansions are intended to help alleviate this condition, as are additional projects still on the drawing board, the company said in a previous press release.

Colonial Pipeline consists of more than 5,500 miles of pipe and connects Gulf Coast refineries with markets across the South and Eastern United States. Colonial transports refined petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, home heating oil and fuels for the U.S. military.

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